14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has suddenly removed reddit clients from the App Store earlier today in a move that has made many believe that the company is trying to favor the recently launched official reddit app that landed on iOS and Android last week.
But it appears that the decision to pull the third-party clients from the store is not in any way related to the launch of the official app, but to the NSFW content that these apps are actually providing access to.
Although Apple hasn’t said anything officially yet, the company has already talked with several developers whose apps got pulled from the store and has told them that, by allowing users to access NSFW content, their apps violate clause 18.2 of the App Review Guidelines.
What’s odd, however, is that Cupertino pulled all these apps without prior notice, but the company actually contacted developers of the official reddit client to tell them about the violation and release an update in order to comply with requirements.
“We were asked to update our apps (AB and Reddit Official) to remove the ‘Safe for Work Browsing’ toggle. This is a feature we previously refined with Apple’s help. We were surprised by the notice,” the reddit team said in a statement a few minutes ago.
“We just resubmitted our build. We were not informed that Apple would be removing other apps. We were very upset to see that they did. Honestly, if we were interested in getting rid of 3rd party apps (which we’re not!!!), this would be the stupidest possible way to accomplish it. We suggest all 3rd party apps similarly remove settings for safe for work browsing.”
Updates expected for all apps
Several developers whose apps got pulled from the store confirmed that they were asked to tweak NSFW toggles in their apps, so all reddit clients should return in the store as soon as an update in this regard is released.
“Apple asked me to remove my NSFW toggle and resubmit. It's not clear if that means remove the option to hide NSFW content or block all NSFW content period. Apple told me ‘It would be appropriate to remove the toggle and pornography present within the app,’” Eggplant developer explained in a post on reddit.
Apple hasn’t yet issued a statement on this, but all reddit clients are expected to return to the store as soon as their devs make the requested changes and resubmit apps.